Element wrote:Chat site should be challenging. It is good to be more than a place for emotional catharsis.

Yeah, but it shouldn't be a flame-fest either.

Hey Lisa

I am sorry about what happened, this is the first time I learned that you were banned!And I agree, there should be a middle ground, and I hope that is what we are creating here.Anyway, its good to have you on board.Metta

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Indeed! Very cool!Today while some of us were sweltering, Retro informed me he was abiding in sublime air-conditioned comfort!'Your's truly' experienced every shade of envy.It was an interesting experience!Metta

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

I want to thank you all for the MANY insightful and respectful posts made in this discussion. Speaking for my self (non-self?) i feel that i have gained greater clarity here, about these issues.

[EDIT: Comments regarding other sites removed - Retro.]

I would therefore request that the moderators consider closing this discussion

"As Buddhists, we should aim to develop relationships that are not predominated by grasping and clinging. Our relationships should be characterised by the brahmaviharas of metta (loving kindness), mudita (sympathetic joy), karuna (compassion), and upekkha (equanimity)."~post by Ben, Jul 02, 2009